During semiconductor fabrication a substrate may be polished or planarized to remove a layer or portion thereof from the substrate. One such process is known as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). In a typical CMP process, a substrate is supported by an apparatus, which presses the substrate against a polishing pad (e.g., a rotating pad). Often the pad polishes the substrate in the presence of a polishing slurry, water, or other fluid. During the polishing, the properties of the polishing pad may be altered, for example, changing the polishing rate or quality (e.g., uniformity). Thus, pad conditioning is performed to restore the polishing pad by reconditioning the surface of the polishing pad that comes into contact with the substrate during polishing. Although existing polishing pads and methods of pad conditioning have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects.